my two cents compliance with the open public's meeting law notification of this meeting has been sent to official newspapers and other publications circulated in the Burough Hall of Japan and notice posted on the bulletin board at Burough Hall please be reminded that all of our meetings are video recorded
and added to our website within a couple of days please note the fire exits uh at the main entrance to the council chambers and to the rear of the council chambers uh roll call please mayor Dager here councilman Davi here councilman Boyce councilman Guan here councilman
Marty here councilman Misero here councilman Yu here please rise and join me for the salute to the flag i pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands one nation under God
indivisible with liberty and justice for all okay our first order of business tonight is uh what is our first order of business is um a public hearing on the Oaks Park House and that is for council
president but I I don't have that in front there's no resolution you just have to open it okay well we are the last I got it this is the last time we're proposing a a new house on the Oaks Park property and since it's a member of the it's it's part of the
Green Acres program where we got funding from there are certain parameters that we have to follow we had one hearing already so this is our second hearing so if anyone has a comment at this time I'd like to open the meeting to the public anyone has a comment about this second
all in favor of that i Okay would anyone from the public like to be heard on um our new facility at Oaks Park seeing none motion to close second all in favor i okay thank you um moving
right along we have a proclamation tonight and I I know I personally want to thank Rabbi Lewis for reaching out to me a few weeks ago and and sharing uh um sharing a very important cause that he asked that we could uh uh discuss
tonight and read into our public uh uh into our public record and it would be my honor to uh to read this uh proclamation tonight whereas excellence in education is vital to the success of our nation and whereas by preparing students for
the responsibilities and opportunities of the future education develops the intellect through lessons in literacy math science and whereas one shining example of all the of all people of what education ought to be was provided by
Rabbi Menachim help me with the name Shiniro son okay a global spiritual leader and a tireless advocate for youth around the world who emphasized the importance of education a good character across the globe and whereas education
in general should not be limited to the acquisition of knowledge and preparation for a career nor should its sole focus be on making a better living and whereas the educational system must also focus on building character by emphasizing the cultivation of universal moral and
ethical values that have been bedrock that have been the bedrock of society from the dawn of civilization and whereas in recognition of Rabbi Shineran outstanding and lasting contributions towards improvements in world education morality and act of charity he was
awarded the congressional gold medal in United States Congress has established his birthday as a national day day to raise awareness strength strengthen the education of our children and whereas the character of our young people is strengthened by serving a cause greater
than oneself and by the anchor of virtues including courage and compassion by installing a spirit of service in the burough's youth we we create a more optimistic future for them and our burrow now therefore be resolved by the mayor and council of the bur of old
depan that April 9th 2025 is recognized as education and sharing day in old Japan to highlight the important need to focus efforts on better education for all who reside in old Japan and be it further resolved that all government
officials educators volunteers and citizens should reach out to young people and work to create a better brighter and more hopeful future for all okay thank you thank you and thank you for bringing this to our attention
okay um moving along we have uh a resolution is our 2025 municipal budget introduction and that is for House B1 yep thank you Mr mayor as you know we've been working um on a number of hours to get our 2025
municipal budget uh completed and I'm happy to uh introduce our budget into the record uh so here's the reading first reading be it resolved that the following statement of revenues and appropriations attached here to constitute the local budget of the
borrow of depan Bergen County New Jersey for the year 2025 be it further resolved that the said budget be published in the record in the issue of April 11 2025 and that a hearing on the budget will be held at the municipal building on May 5th at
7:30 or as soon thereafter as the matter may be reached thank you okay any uh questions or comments on that statement roll call please councilman Bagi yes councilman Guan yes council Marty yes
councilwoman Misero yes council yes okay moving on to our consent resolution is for acting council president thank you Mr mayor uh the consent resolution be it resolved that the following resolutions placed on the
agenda by consent require no discussion and the same having been previously reviewed by each council person be and are hereby adopted in their entirety by the mayor and council of the borrowable pan bills and claims release cash bonds and escrow temporary emergency
resolution temporary emergency resolution capital improvement fund cancel general capital improvement authorization balance temporary capital budget amendment performance bond release khavnanian Enclave Tapan
LLC contract award huitt Landscaping Incorporated Stoneoint Park Paver Path bid advertisement to Wolf Road section 7 bid advertisement Perry Street phase 2 second
any discussion on our consent resolution saying none roll call please council yes councilman Guan yes council Marty yes council yes councilman Young yes okay under new business we'll start with ordinance
1275-25 for Councilman Quant yes uh introducing a resolution this would be the first reading uh for various improvements and acquisitions it has to do with a uh bond uh ordinance right to issue uh for some of our capital needs um and I don't if you want to give more
detail but Anna this ordinance about Jesse it's just a bond ordinance right okay all right so I'd like to read it right from the uh it's ordinance 1275-25 again it's the first reading capital ordinance various improvements
and acquisitions whereas it's a resolution whereas an ordinance entitled bond ordinance to authorize the making of various public improvements and the acquisition of new additional or replacement equipment and machinery new communication and signal systems equipment new information
technology equipment and new automotive vehicles including original apparatus and equipment in by and for the burrow of altapan in the county of Bergen state of New Jersey to appropriate the sum of 1,941,3 $351 to pay the cost thereof to
appropriate a state grant to make a down payment to authorize the issuance of bonds to finance such appropriation and to provide for the issuance of bond anticipation notes in anticipation of the issuance of such bonds was introduced at a meeting of the mayor and
council held on the 7th day of April 2025 now therefore be it resolved by the mayor and council of the borrow of volan county of Bergen state jersey that the ordinance number 1275-25B and the same is hereby adopted
on the first reading and be it further resolved that said ordinance number 127525 will be further considered for passage at a meeting of the said mayor and council to be held on the 21st day of April 2025 at 7:30 p.m in the evening
or as soon thereafter as the matter can be reached in the council chambers of Burough Hall 227P world New Jersey at which time and place all persons who may be interested will be given an opportunity to be heard regarding ordinance 1275-25 and be it finally resolved that
the burough clerk is hereby authorized and directed to published the introduction and notice of hearing as required by law second any discussion on this seeing none roll call please councilman Bagi yes council yes council
yes council member yes councilman yes okay moving on to ordinance 1276-25 is Councilman Yu thank you Mr mayor this is the first reading of ordinance number
1276-25 capital ordinance various sewer improvements and acquisitions resolution whereas an ordinance entitled bond ordinance to authorize the making of various sanitary sewer improvements and the acquisition of new of a new automotive vehicle
including original apparatus and equipment in by and for the se sewer utility of the burough Voltapan in the county of Bergen state of New Jersey to appropriate the sum of $197,000 to pay the cost thereof to
authorize the issuance of bonds to finance such appropriation and to provide for the issuance of bond anticipation notes in anticipation of the issuance of such bonds was introduced at a meeting of the mayor and council held on the 7th day of April
20125 now therefore be it resolved by the mayor and council of the burough often county of Bergen state of New Jersey that ordinance number 1276-25 be in the same hereby adopted on first reading and be it further resolved
that said ordinance number 1276-25 will be further considered for final passage at a meeting of said mayor and council to be held on the 21st day of April 2025 at 7:30 p.m in the evening
or as soon thereafter as as the matter can be reached in the council chambers at Burough Hall 227 Ultipan Road Ultipan New Jersey at which time and place all persons who may be interested will be given an opportunity to be heard
regarding ordinance number 1276-25 be it finally resolved that the burough clerk is hereby authorized and directed to publish the introduction and notice of hearing as required by law second second on that second okay any
further discussion on 1276-25 seeing none roll call please councilman yes councilman Guan yes councilman Marty yes councilman Sarah yes councilman yes okay uh moving on to uh ordinance
127-25 is for Councilman Wong thank you Mr mayor uh this resolution has to do with moving i'm sorry you were right you did right sorry what happened you stupid what happened
am I good okay sorry no this resolution has to do with moving funds uh from the capital improvement fund and from general capital surplus to pay for various equipment so this is the first reading uh it's ordinance number 1277-25 capital ordinance various
improvements and acquisitions fully funded whereas an ordinance entitled a capital ordinance appropriating the sum of 255,000 for the making of various improvements and the acquisition of various equipment by the burough of voltapan and to appropriate 165,000 from
the capital improvement fund and 90,000 from the capital the general capital surplus was introduced at a meeting of the mayor and council held on the 7th day of April 2025 now therefore be it resolved by the mayor and council of the burough of Alapan County of Bergen state
of New Jersey that ordinance number 1277-25B and the same is hereby adopted on the first reading and be it further resolved that the ordinance number 1277-25 will be further considered for final passage and a meeting of the said mayor and council to be held on the 21st
day of April 2025 at 7:30 in the evening or as soon thereafter as the matter can be reached in the council chambers at Burough Hall 227 Ultipan Road Ultipan New Jersey at which time and place all persons who may be interested be given an opportunity to be heard regarding
ordinance 1277-25 and be it finally resolved that the borrow clerk is hereby authorized and directed to publish the introduction and notice of hearing as required by law second okay any further discussion on this ordinance roll call please
councilman Baggi yes councilman Juan yes councilman Marty yes councilwoman Misero yes councilman Hugh yes okay um we have one more of these um ordinance 1278-25 for Councilman Gu thank you Mr
mayor uh this resolution has to do with establishing uh cap bank right and uh exceeding uh those limits um this would be the first reading ordinance uh number 1278-25 exceed municipal budget
appropriation limits and establish a cap bank whereas an ordinance entitled Burough to pan Bergen County New Jersey calendar year 2025 ordinance to exceed the municipal budget appropriation limits and to establish a cap bank was introduced at a meeting of the mayor and
council held on the 7th day of April 2025 now therefore be it resolved by the mayor and council of the burough of Alapan County of Bergen State New Jersey that ordinance number 1278-25B and the same is hereby adopted on first reading and be it further
resolved that ordinance number 127825 will be further considered for final passage at a meeting of the said mayor and council to be held on the 21st day of April 2025 at 7:30 in the evening or as soon thereafter as the matter can be reached in the council chambers at
Burrow Hall 227 7 Alipan Road Alipan New Jersey at which time and place all persons who may be interested will be given an opportunity to be heard regarding ordinance 1278-25 and be it finally resolved the burough clerk is hereby authorized and
directed to publish the introduction and notice of hearing as required by law second any discussion on this ordinance so none roll call please council yes council Warren yes councilman Marty yes councilwoman
yes okay moving on to old business um I have a couple of things I'd like to go over tonight um it was two weeks ago or 3 weeks ago depending on how the calendar fell um we
had a gentleman gentleman in here complaining about noise and I we made a promise that uh we would get back to him and we'd come up with some sort of a solution for uh for the noise problem that is uh infecting his neighborhood if
you will so I know there was some back and forth early after that meeting i know Brian you were involved in maybe some language in an ordinance update uh and our B administrator was uh um made a few suggestions on purchasing inexpensive are they decimal readers is
that what So I'd like to uh I'd like to pick up that this conversation and uh work towards a resolution to this problem the the um readers are not the expense
it is the um training which is and calibration Well in calibration I mean but it's it's a you have to go for a process it's a class certification and yeah it's $500 per person for the class just to be able
to read a couple of numbers on a meter that's ridiculous you have to be certified that's that's the way it is but my suggestion was if we do get them and put them in the police cars and we do get a police officer who is certified
Are we are we then compliant and as long as that officer is working well at that time train the rest of them and then as long as we have I think the state the state's going to want their 500 bucks for each person it's not the
same it's there's usually a sergeant on every shift right there is a sergeant at every shift well there's a to Yeah wouldn't it be better just to get it done so nobody was just I like the idea uh I think
tweaking some language in the ordinance and that's kind of the easy part unless we do a DPW person at 11:00 at night on Saturday well you do a police officer well all right i'm assuming we have no noise polluters in the audience i know
I'm up on stage we buy $40 $50 we buy three $40 or $50 Amazon decel readers we put them in the patrol cars they respond there sir ma'am it's you know even
though it's not 10:00 or 11:00 I forget what our ordinance says um 11 11 it's noisy yes can you turn it down i bet 90 90 out of a 100 times they're going to turn it down because these
folks say he's got this piece of equipment there that he's aiming at my back fence and he knows that I'm really loud i'm in a party i don't think my opinion and you can say I'm off base and you got to be sure all the time we're going to leave
and if it goes up we're going to write a summon and if that summons gets thrown out because our calibration or someone wasn't then it gets thrown out but it's a good effort attempt we send the message to I would agree a nine out of 10en times they're going to shut the
music start and if they do it again you come back if they continue and hopefully by maybe the officer who is I would say at least certified one officer So that why don't we see how it goes
first if it's a repeat offender maybe those are that's where you go and you do summons mhm strap went to a tree in Councilman Boyce's uh in-law's backyard that lives close by and since since we last met has there been any more
incidences yes and has anyone spoken to the owners of the house since then owners of the ones with the of the source of the source of the source of the source no no okay that's not my job has PD responded to
that house do we know i'm not aware i wouldn't mean since the last They have prior they have but it's still not correcting the issue no no i'm saying prior to when the gentleman came in and pleaded right uh I don't know if the PD's been back maybe you can check that i will but I have I don't have any
knowledge of that okay i'll check he did reach out to me rel everybody really yeah this isn't the first time um I mean last year we had a guy on or two years ago I think it was on Greenwoods corner of I'm sorry Churchill corner of
Churchill was Mrs boyer's son corner of Churchill and Ogle had a problem with a house that was on Ogle but way above him outdoor speakers that were as big as you know Lake Michigan and uh and they were blasting in his yard and it was terrible
so it was that was our first foray into So if this happens at 8:00 at night and we tweak our language in our ordinance as as a a nuisance or things like that um and we show up at 8:00 and we point the decimal meter and say sir ma'am it
this is this is unacceptable and this is a police officer telling someone it's unacceptable um I'd like to try yes you just have to quantify the decibb i think it's a I think it's set 82 decibels are
actually set in the model noise ordinance go so you could use those i think they're also set in our ordinance i think it's 65 dB at night and well I think that's why it would be a good idea to have at least one person certified so
that they know they sign off on the report i wouldn't disagree one person well let's see how this goes first it's certainly additional evidence mayor if you go into court and as an officer or somebody from the building department can say "Yeah I was there you know I
used a sound pressure meter and it said it was 110 dB." Um that's unreasonable i don't disagree with you in court I'm wondering if it how often does it get that court and if we if it gets thrown
out because of that okay it's time to and people certify it i would agree at least try especially because when that gentleman came he's not the only person he was just the one who He's just the one who came here exactly so we do He's not the only neighbor who lives there it's not the only neighborhood that has
it look we're all friendly we're not trying to you know tell our neighbors not take the time i'll be the first one i can't wait for it to be 70° and not this gloomy weather that gentleman was very uh passionate about it but he's not to my point he's speaking on behalf of a
lot of other residents um and neighbors in that area but also in other parts of the town so I think that's a great idea and and it's it can't I think it's worth trying worth pursuing for sure so tightening up the language a little bit and purchasing three I would do one for
each for each patrol car yeah that way it's in there tell the chief it's coming out of his button wait can we put that in the back what is it called noise meters yeah decibel meter decel meter it'll come out of my budget of course oh
you got a big budget so okay uh do I need some sort of No I'll you draw it up and we'll uh act on it next meeting yes all right i guess it'll just be an addendum update to our It'll be an amendment to the ordinance yeah so I need to see whatever the language was
okay can everybody panel that next meeting i got it okay thank you uh all right next thing I have myself and a burough attorney have spending half our life uh recently uh
talking about affordable housing and the New Jersey Builders Association uh etc etc so I think I had an opportunity to speak with song i do want to kind of read it you know in for the record it's not a pack house here
tonight but I want to uh I want to read something and then uh I want to uh uh introduce have us introduce an ordinance uh a resolution to uh to back this up so kind of just in review back in October
of 2024 Altapan was assigned a number of 233 affordable and moderate units to be built or redeveloped over the next decade potentially leading to 1165 additional units with 20% of that being set aside for affordable or moderate
housing that's a lot of units january 2025 this council with the help of our burough planners submitted the number of 121 units that we felt could build or renovate over the next 10 years while protecting our suburban community adhering to our zoning and protect us
from irresponsible overdevelopment about 160 about 160 municipalities around New Jersey submitted an alternate number to the Department of Community Affairs number leading the New Jersey Builders Association really quickly to file suit against60
municipalities myself burough planner and burough attorney have had several virtual meetings with retired judge and a special mediator i don't know their exact titles but something like that to to uh to come to a compromise and settle before heading to costly trial initially
New Jersey Builders Association offered us a 4% reduction which I politely denied our plan to exclude certain properties was basically denied orange Rocklin our leaf dump was advised by the
mediator that they would that they would recommend that the court that these would remain as part of our uh property if you will consider that would be considered this past Friday met once again to discuss a settlement agreement this was a one-way negotiation
it was pretty clear that the system was going to revert back to the DCA number of 233 oakan offered a number in the 190s which pres which was presented to uh the builders association and they counted with two with 212 which was a 9%
reduction um language in the bill states a realistic need to satisfy 25% um which would mean that we really would have to uh come up with 53 type units
um and have a real plan to do that uh with the remainder going to our unmet need after our vacant land adjustment uh I don't want I can't discuss tonight some of the things there but I feel confident that we can satisfy these 53 units uh but again unable to discuss
some of the parameters of that at this time uh this resolution will keep us out of another costly lawsuit which we are not opt to win judges are taking the easy way out and just accepting the DCA number um of 233 so we got a 21 unit
discount if you will by uh by passing this resolution tonight so um um Ron I think you were going to read this i have it yeah so if you could read the resolution sure this is a resolution for the Burough Volts Pan authorizing the mayor and burough clerk to sign the
settlement agreement on behalf of the Burough Volts Pan and New Jersey Builders Association whereas the governing body of the burough of Voltan filed a declaratory judgment complaint in superior court on January 8th 2025
pursuant to NJSA 527D-304.2-304.3 2-304.3 and and -304.1 of the New Jersey Fair Housing Act NJSA527D-301 collectively the FHA and in accordance with section two
administrative an administrative directive number 14-24 of the affordable housing dispute resolution program commonly called the program seeking a certification of compliance with the FHA and whereas objections to the municipal
calculations of present and prospective need were timely filed by the New Jersey Builders Association represented by council the challenger disputing the burrow's proposed obligations for present and prospective need and whereas
the matter was assigned assigned the case to program member judge Bookbinder to handle the case in accordance with the statute and AOC directive requiring the member to issue recommendations to the county mount Laurel judge
end whereas the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs the DCA determined that the burough's perspective need was 233 units however the burrow and its professional planner determined that the burough's land capacity was overstated by the DCA and that the proc perspective
need should have been 121 units whereas the parties have engaged in extensive settlement negotiations before during and after the initial settlement conferences with the guidance and assistance of the program member assigned to the case and a special
adjudicator and whereas the municipality and the builders association have reached a resolution where whereby the parties agreed to a prospective need obligation for the burrow of 212 units and whereas the settlement was placed on the record the
party circulated the settlement agreement that will be uploaded to e courts upon the burrow adopting a resolution to accept the settlement and now therefore be it resolved by the mayor and council burough volt pan hereby agree to the settlement and authorize the mayor and burough clerk to
sign the settlement agreement on behalf of the burrow upon approval of the agreement by the burough attorney be it further resolved that a cop copy of this resolution shall be filed with the clerk of the burrow of old Japan the within resolution was duly adopted by the burough council at a
meeting on April 7th 2020 second on it second second we have any further discussion after hearing the resolution and uh some of my notes there any any any questions how many meetings did we have with the mediator
altogether at least three and you had same mediator right we had at least three with the special adjudicator and the judge and I was in contact with the special adjudicator and a judge over the weekend probably a half dozen times was it just both the pan and that or was it a bunch of times no just Well when it
was collectively the three times the mayor was speaking of that was three or four towns um more recently it was just the special adjudicator or the judge all right Mr mayor like you said again I
just don't understand how the New Jersey Builders Association is primary objectors to this to this resol to to our number you think they have a conflict of interest i understand i think so i actually looked into that because I was going to challenge their
standing to bring the lawsuit they were actually designated by the Supreme Court in the first Mount Laurel case as an interested party and they continue with that i looked at their website i didn't see anything on their website they said they they were affordable housing you figure an affordable housing advocate
would be the primary objectors to to our adjusted numbers it wasn't it was it was somebody that's going to get paid so I on that I I heard a story I was speaking to another mayor and they offered uh let's say just for instance they had they had a number of 200 i'm just going
to use that number as an example they said "Hey listen we'll accept we'll take the 200 but we're going to build just 200 maybe we'll build two three four buildings of 50 each but they're going to be 100% affordable or moderate um some put aside for seniors yada." And
they the builders association said no cuz they don't want the 200 units they want the 1,200 units the 20% they want the 80% more converts yeah the 12 so I found that as a somewhat of a disturbing uh um So it's not about
affordable housing at all it's about building just building no not at all right yes sir so the we negotiated uh the numbers down 9% right from from 233 can you comment on the range of
other settlements from other towns uh I think we're on the higher side i mean Brian might be able to answer that better because he's been representing other towns it was four to six is the range that I've been hearing it's the highest of any town ours is the highest they the builders were coming in at 2 to
3% initially the program was supposed to be over April 1st so many people challenged it that they were doing four and five communities together on a Zoom call with a special adjudicator and a judge okay um and the builders have been
slowly moving off that 2 to 3% i don't know of anyone who's gotten 9% or even close to it frankly okay i'm not looking to win any negotiation awards by 9% i I just don't know where we fall in that whole range right if if others were getting 20% in negotiations or something
we're way off then I would say no but 9% in a relative sense of where everybody else is 15% where are we putting these we don't I think that's a discussion for another day we said this every round so just so by correct me if I'm wrong on the dates but by between now and June
30th we will be working along with the planning board on our housing element plan so we will be um discussing certain options for us to do this uh some we have to do uh and some it'll be a
perpetual IOU you know our unmet need we just can't do it at at this time um what happens with the vacant land adjustment you still have that we still have an opportunity that's what we're going to work off of um but the reason I said I can't there's
there's some early conversations but it's involves you know some of the private sector and things like that so uh uh but we have uh 90 days or so to really get this thing buttoned up and presented i have a question let's say
after this round after the 10 10 years you know there'll be another round right every 10 years yeah I've been around for a few of these rounds uh is it far-fetched to think that let's 10 years from now we got another round
coming and would it be farfetched for the DCA to allow the towns or mandate the towns to condemn a property to let's say we have a building in town that's a commercial building that's not being
used but it's privately owned would there be a Excuse my back would there be a uh Would it be farfetched to think that the state might say "Well you can just condemn that." And would we I know we could correct nothing is farfetched
in this legislation okay cuz that that concerns me that you'd be forced into condemning a property to fulfill your need which is really the builder's needs and not nobody's against affordable housing of course we want everyone to
have place to live we've said that we've said that many times it's been a theme of yours but is that is that crazy thinking or do you think that could actually come to pass i think we have to worry about the fourth round now and I think that uh and I'm and I'm very optimistic that we will put a
responsible fourth round plan together what we can do in the short term what we can't do right now and we'll even the golf course golf course is in a now 60 acres your farm okay fair point why couldn't you come to come to me or my
son at the time you know in 20 years say "Yeah we really we're going to condemn your property because we need it affordable housing." Sorry but I think it's farfetched now but I don't know i don't know how much how the more I listen guess it depends on the longer I live the shape of the legisl
legislators are in the state of New Jersey and I'll leave it at that but um that's that's it bothers me though it's not you in general municipalities are just bowing and saying "Okay we'll just take it to the chin." It's really bothering me been
bothering me since the '9s okay that's all I had i'm sorry i don't want to labor the point okay I think we have a motion and a second uh roll call please councilman Vanagi yes councilman yes councilman Marty no councilwoman
Mero yes councilman you so before I vote I just want to say who else but the members of the committee know what can or should be built here um I mean a lot of these judges and um
these builders never been to Alipan they probably don't even know where Old Tapan is so I choose to stand by our bill our planners number of 121 and I vote no to the resolution so we have one three four to two 4 to
two okay i'm sorry 3 to2 that's all right thank you um All right next order of business the a motion to open the meeting to the public so move second all in favor i would anyone from the public like to be
heard tonight on any matter sure i want to just uh thank you come up got to come up to the microphone address if we know the mic yes i want to thank you for the resolution you're very welcome the
rebar who said his last name correctly that doesn't happen that often that's as good as you think i I have I have the same first name and that they call me Mendy because it's a second name but uh I'm his emissary here in old Japan so uh it's very meaningful but uh it's an
important cause and when I when I read what you said that a week or so ago and uh it's very important and I think education uh and getting to our youth uh council woman and as a high school teacher and she preaches all the time with the members of our youth council uh
in the audience tonight so uh I think it was very fitting thank you thank you very much i have a question Rabbi so so I read the resolution i totally understand and you know agree with all the elements of the resolution how and support education how is Rabbi
Schneerson um name associated with this so it began uh as far as I understand it began with his inspiration this this idea as an educator because yes because he advocated so much for
education uh so I think this was 1978 they began uh this tradition uh specifically it's actually interesting that it's the only date in the the only um day on the American calendar that is
actually observed on another calendar oh it's on the Jewish date his birthday is tomorrow evening Wednesday the uh 11th of Nissan and very unique he he really advocated he really understood
um the the youth and uh it's especially appropriate now before Passover because uh Passover is all about the children arousing their cur curiosity and uh allowing them to ask and to be inspired and to further the uh
traditions um but not only in the tradition but uh also growing and affecting the world uh making a difference here so I wanted to speak to that also just as a thank you and an aside last week I'm not sure if you are
aware but NVOT which has a large student population um we hosted Mr paul Golan who's a Holocaust survivor and I had the pleasure of introducing him and speaking uh with him and then he spoke I this man from memory no notes was able going to
be 90 years old he spoke to 1,200 1300 students so I was in front of that group and you know to see how many kids and they were paying attention they were asking him questions so he told his story from just memory obviously and
then the the students were able you said the engage and and ask questions and that's exactly what they did after he spoke they did a question and answer so it's right in alignment with what you're you're talking about and that was just last week at uh at the high school up in Old Pan so I just wanted to let you know
that that that's part of you know the community education process so thank you for bring there's a Jewish club um that started recently which I'm sure you're aware of or you may be aware of um we actually did an event for pur um after
school hours cuz they're only allowed to invite a guest after school hours um and then last year we also went to the my wife and I was here um we went to the school play which was right after it was a month or so after October 7th um and
it was a the story of Aunt Frank but they they they they mentioned it and it was um I'm I'm very impressed um with the students there with the with the education here in Oldtown even though our children went to religious school um we still have to in high school um but
uh we appreciate the uh focus on education here in the community and my wife and I is my wife just had a was did a program this afternoon for two-year-olds so uh we uh we focus a lot on education and try to give the next
generation what they need to be able to survive thrive in the world today right so thank you very much thank you for coming in and if there's a moment that I can get a picture with the resolution of course sure yeah okay
we'll uh whenever we need another 20 or so thank you all right um Okay anyone else from the public like to be heard seeing none motion to close second all in favor i motion to adjurnn so move all right let's go right into our uh
executive meeting roll call please mayor Gallagher here councilman here councilman Boyce council here councilman Marty here councilwoman here councilman Hugh here okay i don't see our engineer here tonight so I think we'll forgo our
engineers report um council committee reports we'll start uh with Councilman Yu thank you Mr mayor uh report of the DPW i was tasked with uh finding out about a pre-warning sign um warning
drivers about an upcoming uh crosswalk on Central near the high school andy said they are available but we might have to get county approval to get them installed and but he doesn't see that as an issue some of the work that they performed in
the month of March they started prepping the baseball fields they started the spring cleanups and maintenance of the parks as well as uh uh prepped all our lawn equipment for use they poured new concrete uh they poured a new concrete pad at the golf course for new pump
house they jetted 33,000 ft of sewer line and performed weekly pump station checks uh they took over the sewer pump station at the Enclave so that's got to be watched very carefully did you say they took it over they took it over so
we own it then we own it yep and we they answered 60 calls for service i just wanted to mention that I did get a phone call from a resident um while they were jetting sewer lines i guess it does disrupt the plumbing inside the house a
little bit especially the toilets that are open to the line i'm trying to I'm going to be working with Andy maybe we could give them a little warning before they go and go ahead and uh jet those sewer lines because this uh one one resident
was kind of low grade toilet or I don't know what it was but it's the first I've heard of that i mean they've been jetting sewer lines for a long time maybe it was clogged i've never heard of that maybe the sewer line that might have been clogged and that had something to do created a vacuum but I don't know i'm going to talk to Andy more about that
um I have a construction report for the month of March it looks like we have 33 open permits currently uh at a total value of over a million dollars and so far in the month of March permit fees
totaled 31,285 uh report of our senior citizens um they'll be um participating in tech health classes hosted by our OT youth council some members are over there this Saturday from 1 till 2 or 3 uh the
senior advisory committee will be hosting their meet and greet on May 15th the committee will be also hosting their ever so popular 50s dance on May 22nd and the chair would like to remind
everyone who's interested be there or be square and that concludes my report mr mayor thanks Councilman councilwoman Miss thank you Mr mayor um just briefly uh the historical meeting the historical
committee is meeting tomorrow night for historical discussion of our local history at the 76 which we're very excited about um this is a follow-up to our guest speaker last spring uh Rob Nordon who many of you were in attendance at the firehouse when he hosted so he's going to be hosting us
tomorrow night at the 76s we will be taking a tour and discussing local history particularly Old Japan's role in the American Revolution and we will also host host our traditional meeting there to discuss upcoming events recreation Easter egg hunt is Saturday April 12th
to Saturday at 2 p.m this is time adjusted to uh accommodate OT baseball softball games in the morning the rain date is Sunday April 13th opening day for baseball T-ball softball is Saturday
April 26 fields and courts are in great shape thanks to the DPW for their excellent prep work um field prep i walked chestnut one and chestnut 2 with the DPW last week several times infield work looks excellent we appreciate their efficient time management and work ethic
especially on these cold rainy days um you know when everything will be in bloom in a few weeks and looks great we we owe it to them on those cold rainy mornings they're out there either way uh some commission news from recreation katherine Chang has resigned from the rec commission we thank her her for her
service her term as an alternate expires 123126 and congratulations to our eighth grade boys travel basketball team who won the championship uh youth council they are very busy they've actually been meeting weekly
uh which is very impressive um we have a few members volunteering on the town day committee the group is writing letters to Orangetown New York in support of our bureau's opposition to the data center they are hosting a technology session as Councilman Yu mentioned this Saturday
April 12th thank you to members Michelle and Arav for attending tonight uh especially because it's the last week of the marking period and I know you have a lot of work on tap so we really appreciate that uh as I've said each time they're a very active volunteer group with great enthusiasm and ideas and I want to thank Mayor Gallagher for
having the insight to greenlight this group and for this group for making such a strong impact uh not just in education but in the community and it's really great to see departments working together uh I don't you know people don't always know all the behind the scenes thing of how many different departments work together and an example
of this is uh councilman you um you know and the seniors working together with our youth council for the technology but the technology event just so everyone knows it's tech help for anyone you don't have to be a uh you don't have to be a senior to uh to go that sleep
sleeping I was ready um and then lastly for fire um Chief Anders hosted a hazmat refresher course on March 25th which I found to be informative and well attended this was facilitated by a Bergen County Fire Academy fire inspector councilman you and I will be
hosting a group of students with special needs from the high school Friday at the fire department they are part of the Northern Valley Special A Special Education CBO community-based outings group uh and I'm very honored that we will be able to host them this Friday
afternoon uh fire department summary from Chief Charles Anders the 9th calls 27 calls in March 176 hours 50 total calls year to date 352 hours notable incident March 10th small fire on Westcot Street quickly esting
extinguished by the police department mutual aid and EMS responded um no injuries training high-rise walkthrough March 3rd mutual lead drill at the Enclave march 18th hazmat refresher with county instructor instructor march 24th
annual SCBA fit testing is completed apparatus 43 engine and 43 squad back in service post maintenance 43 tower scheduled for annual service lastly fire marshal Evan Kudson responded to CDW school to assist with the fire alarm system last Saturday during their school
play mayor Gallagher was driving the truck and got to see their spirited singing which I won't I'll let you talk about that in your comments uh also Fire Marshall Clson reports quarterly life hazard use youth use inspection sorry the youth are on my mind useth
inspections were completed by March 31st and lastly uh we have been asked to discuss Burough Ordinance 27-15A uh parentheses 4 department officers shall not be officers in the fire department of another municipality
hypothetically if one of our line officers not our chief were to were to be promoted to let's say lieutenant in another fire department we don't want to lose that firefighter they're a valuable asset for example let's say they live in Altapan volunteer on our fire department
but work as a firefighter in let's say Jersey City we want to retain someone with this type of experience not discourage it so I wanted to uh ask I'm simply asking for discussion and consideration to uh tweak this ordinance if anything maybe we've changed it to
say something like a chief couldn't be a chief in two volunteer departments but I wanted to open this up uh and ask for a discussion uh perhaps a meeting at some point why don't you uh get with your committee so I I don't know off the top of my head who's part of your committee
you laid fire court and Jen court and Jen and come back with some recommendations uh I think I know the situation you're talking about just to kind of set the I think it's a career firefighter that has been promoted okay
um so whether this person's a officer in whatever town he or she may may work in I don't think it's going to interfere with old Pan's response because if someone's on their job wherever that may be and we have a call in town most
likely they're not leaving their job to come here so uh I think the spirit of the ordinance the way it was written several years ago is we didn't want to have officers perhaps in Riverdale and and uh thank you in Rivervale and uh
Westwood or Northvale or Norwood that when we rely on mutual aid well is this person going to be a leader in our department or going to be a leader in in in their department so I I think it's probably an easy thing but get with your committee and bring bring something no I definitely I understand the the spirit
of it i just wanted to bring it to our you know to our attention on that okay thank you that's it yes thank you ready uh let's move on thank you Mr mayor uh few things happening uh so for the library uh there's a board meeting on
Wednesday so I'll get uh some more updates on numbers uh etc uh the roof is leaking when it rains so they're looking to get that repaired uh the board on Wednesday is looking to
approve the town to be on the town paving schedule uh it was the lowest of the bids that they uh got so they'll be on that uh schedule uh the sewers had their first cleaning of the year and uh two printers were purchased and
installed at the library uh OEM uh Andy met with Sunrise to discuss their emergency operation plans and uh went over different scenarios uh that could happen within town uh he also had a quarterly meeting with the county
OEM uh in 2026 as we know uh is oh uh in 2026 uh as we know that is the World Cup it does coincide with uh the United States 250th birthday right July 4th of
2026 uh the other thing to note in this year is actually what is known and I think it's fairly new is the club team world cup so the world cup origin you know the the the real world cup is nations right US etc the club team world
cup is is is the specific teams like in the NHL those are hockey teams right that you could be from different nations etc so they the club teams themselves are having a world cup and one of the uh many of the games will be here uh at the meadow lines at men life so that's
another thing that we're talking about um in finance as you know the final budget meeting with we had the final budget meeting with the auditor and uh as you saw today earlier we submitted it to the official record and so that is the uh end of my report thank you thank
you Councilman Marsh thank you Mayor uh okay schools uh nothing new to report except uh contract negotiations remain ongoing um board of health they are having a book
club meeting tomorrow uh 48 at 1900 hours at the library hopefully it's not under the leaky roof um and the book is calm your mind with food discussions will be led by um clinical social worker
Brian Greco and Dr rubina Batia um another reminder the blood drive uh our first blood drive of the year will be April 21st at the firehouse uh between 4 and 700
p.m uh EMS first aid core um I do before I get into the report I do want to uh mention that they are requesting a um change and I know how we we've discussed this before with the salary ordinance uh
1257-24 um just one u part of it the clothing allowance uh for the members um currently um based on call volume and yeah better yet not call volume but um responses per member they are scheduled
to get between $50 and $800 for the year for the clothing allowance and they like to up that to uh 1,000 cuz they have a handful of um very active members and they feel that um they should be uh compensated for it um going uh into
my report for them um total of 45 EMS calls for the month of March um they were able to get 39 of those calls staffed uh 31 of those calls were in town and the other uh 14 were mutual aid
calls um from the deputy chief their pager updates should be completed this week um they've received six new applications for membership three adults three juniors so that's great and they also purchased um life units um and
they're going to be starting uh training for those this month those are for choking hazards is pretty cool so I think that's wonderful that's the end of my report okay thank you yes sir i have a question uh concerning schools do you know if
their budget has been published yet not yet it's not going to be due until the end of Oh the budget uh I do not i'll I'll take a look does that come out in April too they're having a meeting tonight so I'll follow up yeah and I guess in regards to uh we can add
that salary ordinance upgrade that we seem to do every other month um for uh EMS we're actually going to be introducing a salary ordinance at the next meeting so it can just be incorporated in the new salary ordinance
for the year wonderful okay okay all right thank you uh council thank you Mr mayor um the only thing I have to report is the police department as you know we're hiring two
new officers there were nine applicants that applied just nine and this Thursday and Friday they'll be the internally be in interviewing those nine and getting them
down to four and then next week probably Thursday or Friday that's my what I propose right now i just heard this today so uh I will contact my committee we're going to try to interview those four and choose two out of those four
now that being said couple of things we did this last time and one of them bowed out and the other one didn't make through the f uh the the process of uh the physical yeah the evaluation so
it's always a problem and also to somebody asked I think it was Juan I'm not sure everyone seemed to have a concern a couple of meetings ago about why do people leave you know all the pan and go to work somewhere else of
the nine applicants we have they're all working somewhere else now just to my point of everybody wants to change for some reason the grass is always greener over there so all nine applicants I think only I might be remiss I think one
is going through the academy and almost done but the rest are all what what they call lateral transfers um guys and actually they're all male all guys coming from other departments can we ask in our interview process and I know we've talked about a lot of things changes you know extra interviews etc
etc but I'd love to know maybe why these folks these nine are looking to make a change right i can tell you we do have one person who's who's been on for a few years now that came from state police and just didn't like
the culture okay of the state police but I love to hear it from each n you know and whether it's one of the interview questions or you know you always um it's a great question find out you know what you're doing right and sometimes what you're doing wrong so sometimes it's good to know what we're doing right and then you can emulate that so it's not
always about like in my business you know I lost a job somewhere where why' we lose a job uh price was too high availability i'd like to know why we want some jobs so that we can build on that success so yeah I'd love to know why they're looking to move to I usually
ask that question we do usually yeah we ask that question the ones that I've been in we that's almost the top question is why do you want to leave we say are you working XYZ yes do they know you're here no would it be okay if they knew no it would not be okay you know I get that so so we do ask those questions
about you know why you leaving there well you know I didn't like I didn't like my sergeant or something you know well hopefully it's deeper than that but uh Yeah all right good thank you okay anything else that's all okay um just a couple of comments for myself tonight um
uh real quick budget uh I want to thank once again everyone publicly all work you know watching from home all the hard work that went into our budget this year um from this council from uh from our uh uh administrator from CFO and everyone
else thank you for your hard work and uh uh pulling this what I think is a very responsible budget together in some trying times so uh I want to thank everyone just personally for that uh yes i got to see the great talent of the CDW
um uh drama club during practice where they all ran out in their uniforms because a fire alarm fell off the walls and they continued their ensemble and singing and dancing outside the building i I was entertained as I sat in the fire truck and and and watched them all so
that was that was a a fun Saturday i think it was a Saturday afternoon so that was fun uh just the other two things I will be attending meeting tomorrow morning early morning meeting uh the Burton County League of Municipalities i will be there our uh our secretary I think is your title
there or whatever you do there but I will be I'll be in Hackinack at 7:30 in the morning uh in New Jersey Transit it is is is coming in to talk about uh updates on what they're doing and things like that so you be there and then Wednesday evening I will be attending
the monthly Pasc Valley Mayor's Association meeting this this coming Wednesday uh and that's all I have unless anyone has any questions for me okay I'll let a motion to adjurnn so move second second all in favor i I
We'rejourned